


Stand By Me

by coffeestainsandcashmere



Series: Short Stories [11]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, M/M, Multi, Verbal Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-20
Updated: 2020-07-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:02:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25410571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coffeestainsandcashmere/pseuds/coffeestainsandcashmere
Summary: "Stepping close to him as she passed, Hermione pressed her palms to his chest and surprised him with a kiss to his still-smiling lips. If the flush in his cheeks was anything to go by, he hadn’t been expecting the gesture.Before either of them had the chance to do anything else, however, someone spat and hissed at them from behind Hermione. “Death Eater scum,” the middle aged man sneered. “We don’t want the likes of you here, polluting Diagon Alley! And you, Miss Granger, should be ashamed of yourself - consorting with Death Eaters…”Hermione saw red."Tumblr prompt featuring the trio on a shopping trip to Diagon Alley, and a cameo from Harry and Ginny too because I love the platonic friendship between them, and I want everyone to be friends in the end…(previously called 'By Your Side')
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy/Theodore Nott
Series: Short Stories [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1810282
Comments: 3
Kudos: 57





	Stand By Me

**Author's Note:**

> Obvious warnings for verbal abuse directed at Draco (and Hermione to a certain extent). 
> 
> As with some of the others in this 'Short Stories' series, it could fit with my [All That’s Best of Dark and Bright universe](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24734746/chapters/59793856) as a ‘later’ fic, but it stands alone well enough.

“I need to pop into Flourish and Blotts before we go for drinks. Harry and Ginny won’t mind if we’re a bit late…” Hermione said almost apologetically, but Draco just chuckled and bowed his head, ushering her in front of him with a courtly wave of his pale hand. It might have looked obsequious to anyone else, but the self-deprecating humour in his eyes made her heart clench. 

Stepping close to him as she passed, Hermione pressed her palms to his chest and surprised him with a kiss to his still-smiling lips. If the flush in his cheeks was anything to go by, he hadn’t been expecting the gesture. 

Before either of them had the chance to do anything else, however, someone spat and hissed at them from behind Hermione. “Death Eater scum,” the middle aged man sneered. “We don’t want the likes of you here, polluting Diagon Alley! And you, Miss Granger, should be ashamed of yourself - consorting with Death Eaters…”

Hermione saw red. 

Theo didn’t draw his wand, but immediately put himself between Hermione and the wizard while Draco stood perfectly still behind them, jaw clenched, the recent flush evaporating to leave glacially white skin. 

“How dare you!” she shrilled at the man while Theo’s dark blue eyes fixed him to the spot. The usually bookish, scholarly young man now had a poise and readiness to him that spoke of a master of spellcrafting. A flick of his wrist could have had untold consequences for the offending man, and his furious, ashen face showed it. His height - towering over Draco, Hermione, and the vile little man at nearly six foot four - may have contributed too. 

“Draco Malfoy has been commended _by the Minister for Magic himself_ , for his bravery at the end of the war in not betraying Harry Potter when it would have been the easiest thing in the world to speak his name. How dare you make such assumptions! And where were you anyway? Where were you while children fought against Voldemort? And won!” 

“Hermione,” Theo murmured warily, turning to face her slightly. His fingers curled around his wand, out of sight but ready in his pocket.

Nostrils flared, Hermione drew a deep breath and fell silent, though her eyes never left the wizard standing nearby. He looked suddenly a little sweaty around the temples. 

Theo turned back to him and said in a low, dangerous voice, “I suggest you leave now, and keep comments like that to yourself from now on, hmm? Better yet, open your fucking mind, ok?” And when the wizard seemed rooted to the spot by the ferocity of the reaction his words had elicited, Theo raised one eyebrow and jutted his chin at him, and the man finally scuttled off, coming to his senses in a rush. 

Almost shaking with rage, Hermione turned back to look at Draco. The young man stood statue-still, watching the two of them with an inscrutable expression on his pinched face. 

“Draco?” Theo murmured, leaving Hermione’s side and crossing to him, cupping his face with an elegant hand. He kissed him gently on the lips and Draco’s eyelids fluttered, lashes glinting like silver leaf. 

“Let’s go,” he rasped, turning away and breaking the contact. 

As Draco walked off alone up the cobbled street, Hermione and Theo exchanged a wordless look, linked hands, and followed after him. Their stay in Flourish and Blotts was not long, the jubilant atmosphere now somewhat crushed, and in fact they arrived at The Leaky Cauldron a little earlier than planned. There was no sign of the others yet either, so once they were ensconced with their drinks in a private corner near the back of the ancient warren of a pub, Hermione placed her hand on Draco’s solid, slender thigh and squeezed. “Are you alright?”

His head snapped up and he met her gaze with glistening, moon-bright eyes. “Am I alright?” he asked in a breathless, incredulous whisper. “Hermione, are _you_?” 

She frowned, visibly taken aback by the question. “I’m not the one who was just openly called a Death Eater, Draco,” she growled through clenched teeth. 

To her surprise, Draco’s expression melted at that, his shoulders dropped, and his whole body grew soft and tender. He reached falteringly for her cheek and brushed the knuckles of his left hand reverently over her flushed skin. “You’re so beautiful,” he breathed. 

“Draco?” 

His lips tugged upwards into a tiny, private smile, and the warmth returned to his silver eyes. He dropped his hand back to his lap. “I’m fine. It’s hardly the worst I’ve ever been called. I’m just sorry you got tarred with the same brush.” 

When that only deepened the scowl on her face, he sighed. 

“Hermione, that’s… What happened today is not going to be an uncommon occurrence if you stay with us. Theo’s… more of a grey area for them, what with his relative anonymity. Despite his father’s… _associations_ … he’s much less well known. You’re —” he shrugged expressively in her direction, “— Hermione Granger. Everyone in the wizarding world knows your face.”

“Then they’d better get used to seeing it next to yours,” she said, eyes blazing. She snatched up Draco’s hand and set her other one palm-up on the table for Theo to slide his into. Connected like that, she felt that familiar thrum of magic run between them, free and easy as a water droplet down a pane of glass. “Both of you. We just… work together, Draco; we fit. And I’m not going to back down or bow out just because people think they know everything about you just from one moment in your life, Draco.”

He swallowed thickly, blinking rapidly, and looked at Theo, finding the same quiet passion roiling in his sapphire eyes. Theo nodded slowly. “Get used to it, Draco. Our Gryffindor lioness is terribly protective of us too, you know?”

A wry smile twisted Draco’s full lips up into a lopsided grin. “A lioness with a snake beneath each paw, huh?”

“You’d better believe it,” she said, breaking their handholds to lean over and take a gulp of his whisky. 

“Starting the drinks without us?” came a familiar, amused voice from behind her, and she made a noise of surprise behind the mouthful of firewhisky.

She set Draco’s tumbler down, amber liquid sloshing around, and looked over her shoulder to see Ginny and Harry standing there hand in hand, both smiling.

Harry’s trained gaze - as both auror and friend - took in the vivid sheen to her eyes, the flush in her cheeks, and the tension in her shoulders, and he tilted his head. “Everything alright?” he asked in a quiet voice as she stood to greet him. 

She nodded. “Yeah. Thanks,” she said, and threw her arms around his neck and squeezed him so hard he coughed. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

“I exist as well, you know?” Ginny snorted as Hermione finally released the young woman’s fiancé. The laughter in Ginny’s voice chased away the last of Hermione’s lingering ire and sadness, and she flung herself with equal fervour at her too. 

When they parted, Hermione slid in beside Theo this time, who nodded at the others. “Ginny, Harry, lovely to see you,” he said warmly. 

“Likewise,” Harry grinned. “Though I’d have thought that Hermione would have loaded you both up with books like pack mules after a visit to Diagon Alley… Where are they all?”

“We didn’t stay long in Flourish and Blotts this time,” she said carefully. “Plus, I’ve got my bag anyway…” she said, with special emphasis. 

“Ah,” he said. “I’ll forget I saw that then, Hermione,” the auror chuckled.

Ginny, still standing, looked at Malfoy and unleashed a deadly grin at him; all teeth. “Ferret,” she said without bite. 

“Weasel,” he returned fondly as she slid into the seat beside him. “Good to see you. Congratulations on making the team,” he added.

Ginny blushed and Hermione looked at her. “You made chaser?”

“First chaser now,” she said, freckles obliterated by the rising colour. 

“Ginny, that’s fantastic!” Hermione practically shrieked. Theo even put his finger comically in his ear and she thwacked him on the arm for it. “Shut up, you,” she snorted affectionately at him and he flashed her his trademark, dimpled grin. “That’s amazing news. Let us get you a drink to celebrate!” 

As the banter flitted between the five of them, the wizard’s comments from the Alley were slowly forgotten. The laughter returned to Draco’s silver eyes as he watched Hermione gesticulating with her hands over her gin and tonic, and he smiled when he Theo shift the drink a little further towards him for safety. A lump formed in his throat that no amount of whisky would ever wash down. 

Much later that night, as he lay with Hermione’s head pillowed on his chest, her curls all over the pillow beside them, and with Theo tucked up on his side next to him, snoring softly, a few wayward twists of his hair tickling Draco’s forehead, Draco stroked his fingers through Hermione’s hair and pressed a kiss to the crown of her head. 

She shifted, the movement a sleepy question in itself, and he sighed, leaving another kiss there amid her wild hair before whispering, “I love you, Granger.”

“I love you too, Malfoy,” she mumbled. 

The arm slung across his chest tightened momentarily, but it did nothing to still the swirling cloud of silver butterflies that fluttered around inside his ribcage at her words. Those words would never get old or tired, no matter how long he lived or how old and tired he got. 

With one final kiss each to Theo and Hermione, Draco finally let himself drift off to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed it. Come find me on Tumblr and leave me a prompt if you like - [coffeestainsandcashmere](https://coffeestainsandcashmere.tumblr.com)


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